Dave Boling of The News Tribune writes about the league’s implementation of a second aptitude test, and wonders if it measures the important things – like toughness and how committed is the player to winning.

ESPN’s Mike Sando writes that Seattle’s defense got the most bang for its buck in 2012, with a little more than $40 million in cap allotment accounted for a defense that ranked No. 7 overall in the league.

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Nice to have a new morning post, thanks Eric. I can’t pretend to know or guess at who our FO picks, i’ll be watching as much combine as i can take. Wow is there a dropoff in qb talent this year, some teams will have to overreach and i hope we make some trades and capitalize on it. With 10 picks and a possible Flynn move,(it would have to be well worth it), we should be able to manuever up or down, preferably up to grab who we targeted. If we did move Flynn, i hope it’s to a crappy AFC team that has defensive talent we can use.

O’Neil’s piece regarding the pass rush brings up some great facts. Only 2 pass rushers drafted outside of the top 20 have made impacts as rookies.
So does Schneider try to move up with Flynn as the bargaining chip? Flip flop first rounders with Flynn added in. Even if they do this, the chances are, whomever they draft will only have so much impact.
Personally, I would love to see a trade for a guy who is in his prime. Tough to find. Longshot, sure. But if they could send Flynn and a first rounder for someone more productive than Osi or Freeney, then that would be great. Not sure who fits that mold yet. I’ve heard Suh mentioned to be on thin ice in Detroit. That would be great.

Given the capitol the Hawks have and the limited number of roster spots that need filling (relative to what they started with) I wonder if someone like Andy Reid might be interested in Flynn+swap firsts deal allowing the Hawks to snag one of the top studs in the draft.

Eric, good article. Lots of folks are suggesting CP won’t be there at 25, but it doesn’t seem a complete impossibility, given his lack of polish.

“A players such as Tennessee receiver Cordarrelle Patterson, who at 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds has great speed and elusive running ability after the catch, could provide that for Seattle.
Yes, Patterson is raw in terms of his route-running ability and understanding a pro-style offense, but he has a tremendous set of tools to work with and develop, and could be worth the gamble for Seattle if he were to fall to No. 25.”

Watching all the rookie prospects running around in skin tight outfits isn’t really my thing. I would think that medical and mental evaluations would be the most important things to checkout, everything else should be on film already. Because people put so much emphasis on workouts and drills in the combine and ESPN and others are trying to cash out on it is the reason there are so many busts. I think it’s all kind of ridiculous myself. As a Hawk fan, I think we’re lucky to have Shneider and Carrol because I think they do a lot of other studying and analysing and don’t take the combine as gospel like some of the other teams out there. Go Hawks.

A fast tall soft-handed #1 WR draftee who can out-fight and take the ball away from our own secondary players (some of the best in the NFL) would make R.Wilson an even more dangerous QB, if not in ’13 then maybe in ’14, or ’15. I’m told that’s why they’re called hood ornaments (picks for teams that are already balanced and competitive). SF tried drafting one (Crabtree) and last season he just started to be effective. Moss and Manningham were added in FA, after the 9ers had already shored up their OL to be one of the best in the league. Baldwin was a shrewd later pick that I hope PC/JS duplicate in this draft. As was mentioned before, we need improved pass rush. Outside pass-rushers, like WRs, also take time to develop, but an inside pass-rusher usually develops quicker, and both A.Branch and J.Jones are UFAs. Ute’s DT S.Lotulelei could be a healthy M.Tubbs, so SEA might have to move up to the top 10 to get him. Because of a falloff in OSU’s (Ohio St) DT J.Hankin’s pass rush stats last season, he might be available at pick 1-25, if he has even made himself eligible for the draft. More likely, Missouri’s DT S.Richardson would be available to play the LDE and 3-tech.

klm, I don’t see us moving up to #10 in the draft. At best I’d say 18. There was some analysis done here a few weeks ago by the faithful that looked at the draft trade value scores and what it would cost us to make a move. Moving up to 18 cost us plenty but still within possibilities, allowing us to reach for a star D line player.

The question that has been in the back of my mind since PC made the statement at the end of the season about it being harder for the rookies this year to make the team is: Do we draft again for quantity, looking for the hidden gems that they are so good at finding, or do we draft for quality – targeting specific players that bring a missing piece to the team?

Given that RW is as accurate a thrower and moble as he is I don’t know that the Seahawks really need a tall fast #1 receiver as much as a guy that can run good routes, start and stop quickly, gain seperation and do a little down field blocking. I’ve really come around on this. Right now I want two more Golden Tates. Not that I’d pass on the next Calvin Johnson mind you….

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